When Should Your Employees Contact the IT Help Desk ASAP?

Engaging your help desk immediately can save you time and loss of data

An intuitive modern employee who’s contacted the help desk a few times knows that most technicians are happy to help, but generally there are a few troubleshooting steps they’d prefer team members go through before clocking a ticket. When the solution is as simple as rebooting, there’s hardly a need to call IT.

However, sometimes there are situations that team members might not realize are reasons to contact IT without any delay. No troubleshooting, no delay, no need to wait. Sometimes, it’s important to get the attention of your technical staff ASAP before a problem has a chance to get any worse. Today, we’re here to highlight the most important of those situations that apply to every business in every industry.

Here’s when you should contact the IT help desk without a moment of delay:

When There are Signs or Suspicion of a Hacker Attack

Hackers are an epidemic in the modern business world, and they come from every possible angle. Like insects out of the woodwork in a horror movie, there’s nowhere a hacker won’t try to invade your company data and the faster you smash them, the better. If an employee sees warning signs that a hacker or malware might be at work, they need to contact the IT help desk right away.

This way, your most expert technical support team can scramble and engage the highest possible data defenses. Network monitoring tools can be used to seek and destroy a lurking hacker in the network or their hidden malware. Virus scanning can be turned up to eleven to detect and eradicate anything suspicious. They may even be able to catch and report the hacker red-handed.

So it’s vital that any signs or suspicion of hacking is reported immediately, before the hacker has a chance to grab their stolen data and run.

When Something’s Sparking or Overheating

Hardware problems are often far more urgent than misbehaving software. When a computer dies, keeps crashing, or starts making a suspicious clicking sound, that’s when IT needs to be called. But some hardware problems can wait until after lunch and some should absolutely not wait.

The most urgent hardware problems involve heat and electricity, which are of course linked inside any computer or device. If you see exposed sparking or wire exposed outside of a computer case, it’s time to call your IT help desk immediately. If a computer or device is so hot that it’s uncomfortable to touch or be near, call IT. And if you smell anything remotely like smoke, smoldering, or that special hot-copper smell you might recognize from certain cooking pans, call IT without a moment to spare.

Any time there is sparking, overheating, or smoldering, then IT needs to know ASAP. If possible, very carefully pull the plug or ask maintenance to pull the plug with one of their rubber cleaning gloves.

When Vital Files are Obviously Missing or Corrupted

Sometimes, it doesn’t take a hacker or a smoking computer to cause an immediate-solution catastrophe. Sometimes, all it takes is a human error or a failed automated software update to put your entire company’s file system at risk. Employees working up in the company software have the best chance to spot when vital company files are missing or somehow corrupted and therefore are in the best position to let IT know that backup recovery procedures are needed right away.

If you run across a file, database, or server that isn’t providing data the way it should, submit that ticket without delay. A good IT team who is already on the ball will have backups ready and can get that file, database, or server back online within the day if you give them fast enough notice.

When a Distressed Customer is On the Line

Finally, it is always OK to contact your IT help desk ASAP if you have a customer on the phone (or chat) who needs technical assistance fast. Distressed customers have always been an aspect of IT assistance, even if you’re calling the internal IT help desk to to solve a problem that is technical beyond your depth but still officially a customer service issue. Your IT help desk will be happy to get you out of the hot water by guiding you to the customer’s needed solution or sometimes even taking over the call to help the customer conquer the technical troubles on their end.

If you or anyone on your team run into one of these problems, don’t stop to troubleshoot. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200. Just call your IT help desk and let them know what’s up so the experts can be on the job as fast as humanly possible. For more IT help desk insights or to design the perfect IT support structure for your business, contact us today!